Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The Second Strangest Day In All My Years At The Capitol

We are at the point in the session when all of our
legislative battles are done, and we await word on the budget. Rumor is that the work on the public
education section of the budget is completed, and that we are actually going to
be receiving a little more in funding for our schools that was in either the House
or Senate budget proposals. If that is
true – that will be a first in my memory.

It was hard not to get engrossed in the ongoing battle
over filling the vacancy created on the Supreme Court of Virginia when the GA
chose to unseat Governor McAuliffe’s appointed justice, Justice Jane Marum Roush.
The Republican majorities in both the House and Senate tried to elect Court
of Appeals Judge Rossie Alston to the high court but fell one vote short on
both the House and Senate resolutions.
Senator Glen Sturtevant sided with the Democrats on both votes, so there
were only 20 votes to elect Alston, not the required 21.

Following today’s Senate adjournment, the
Senate Committee on Courts of Justice met to take up judicial appointments,
including HR79 with which the nominated Kenneth T. Cuccinelli for the Supreme
Court of Virginia. The vote was straight
party-line with Sturtevant voting with the majority.